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Okay, let me start off by saying I was a lurker for a very long time before I started contributing to these forums.

One thing I've noticed over the years is a very few select individuals get to post whatever and wherever they want, and the rest of us no matter how much we've done to contribute are not given an ounce of slack.

I thought I should bring this to your attention because no matter how many thousands of dollars' worth of goods that some of us willingly donate, frequently to mysterious ninjas who can't even spend 5 seconds clicking once and typing "thanks", we still get downrepped for something so trivial as a moment of being juvenile.

You guys pride yourselves on being a classy community. Part of classiness is tolerance. Part of tolerance is knowing when someone is trolling versus having a laugh. If you're mature enough to rep a post, you should be mature enough to know the difference.

I am not going to respond to this thread. I'm done posting for a while, but this was worth mentioning. You want to be classy? Be classy, don't be spiteful. You want to be a good community? Don't penalize people for trying to enjoy this miserable existence a little bit.

No one really cares about rep since it has been abused from the beginning exactly as you describe. Those that do care about it are the same ones doing the immature downrepping and they are not representative of the classy parts of this community. The only thing the "-" button is really good for is reporting spam.

Just an fyi..and then again I'm a noob so maybe I got the wrong impression. But from what I've seen of the others who did this...this is THE best way to attract more minuses.... people who throw a tantrum or say you've been driven away by - button "bullying" these threads seem to attract whats out there and then generate more lol

Better plan: Just ignore it and move on. Rep apparently is meaningless generates itself and they say you can't help but gain points overall no matter what you do or say. so whats the bfd? edit- (ha saw your rep you've been here awhile and have alot so nevermind saw thread assumed you were as new as me)besides 600 is way more than people ever need from what it seems.

TheSupremeForce: . Is there a point to championing THIS cause of all things?

CaptainGyro: Read the OP?

I did read the OP. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been aware of how trivial his cause was. The only thing rep does is restrict really new people (and a certain scammer with a million accounts) from being eligible for things.

Well, I suppose it makes some people cry when the arbitrary number goes down a little... How many people actually keep track of their rep scores? Actually, I'm pretty sure I don't want the answer to that.

Well, rather than just wish about it, I just wrote to GOG support with a request to do something about this recurring problem as follows:

This has not affected me personally but lately there has been a string of posts discussing rep, negative rep, people picking on each other with the minus rep button, etc. It is unfortunate and tends to set a negative tone on the forums at times and upsets affected individuals.

Naturally, if you allow people an anonymous way to give each other a hard time, there will always be some people who relish the opportunity and upset others needlessly.

Please consider removing the minus rep button altogether to keep the forum interactions more positive among members in general? I really think it would be a good idea. I also think leaving rep in place with a positive button is just fine. Just remove the means for people to harass each other please. It is always good after all to accentuate the positive. Thanks very much for considering my request.

I'd encourage others who agree this problem could be solved by removal of the minus button to take a moment and let GOG know how you feel as well. I'd like to see a more positive tone around here and just remove down repping and burying people's posts.

TheSupremeForce: I did read the OP. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been aware of how trivial his cause was. The only thing rep does is restrict really new people (and a certain scammer with a million accounts) from being eligible for things.

Well, I suppose it makes some people cry when the arbitrary number goes down a little... How many people actually keep track of their rep scores? Actually, I'm pretty sure I don't want the answer to that.

It has nothing to do with the rep score. Nobody who complains about downvoting gives a shit about the rep score so I wish people would stop saying stuff like "you should just learn that rep is meaningless". Nobody is crying because their rep isn't 288 instead of 245 or whatever as if they want to brag about their rep number. People complain because of the posts that get hidden/downvoted. There might have been a few who commented on their rep going down, but I don't think it was the fact that the number ( as a status level indicator) went down that bothered them the most. It was the fact that they thought people were unncessarily downvoting and hiding a large amount of posts.

TheSupremeForce: I did read the OP. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been aware of how trivial his cause was. The only thing rep does is restrict really new people (and a certain scammer with a million accounts) from being eligible for things.

Well, I suppose it makes some people cry when the arbitrary number goes down a little... How many people actually keep track of their rep scores? Actually, I'm pretty sure I don't want the answer to that.

CaptainGyro: It has nothing to do with the rep score. Nobody who complains about downvoting gives a shit about the rep score so I wish people would stop saying stuff like "you should just learn that rep is meaningless". Nobody is crying because their rep isn't 288 instead of 245 or whatever as if they want to brag about their rep number. People complain because of the posts that get hidden. There might have been a few who commented on their rep going down, but I don't think it was the fact that the number went down that bothered them the most, it was the fact that they thought people were unncessarily downvoting and hiding a large amount of posts.

Actually, you fail to realize that:

a) people can change whether low rated posts are hidden or not in the settings page b) if a post gets downvoted by different members, there must have been a reason

These constant complaints are fueled by people who feel that their opinions and posts must be seen by everyone. But if they say something other posters don't feel adds value to the discussion, it might be downvoted. That is how the system is intended to function. Some people might rely too much on the buttons, I'll give you that.

CaptainGyro: It has nothing to do with the rep score. Nobody who complains about downvoting gives a shit about the rep score so I wish people would stop saying stuff like "you should just learn that rep is meaningless". Nobody is crying because their rep isn't 288 instead of 245 or whatever as if they want to brag about their rep number. People complain because of the posts that get hidden. There might have been a few who commented on their rep going down, but I don't think it was the fact that the number went down that bothered them the most, it was the fact that they thought people were unncessarily downvoting and hiding a large amount of posts.

kromcita: Actually, you fail to realize that:

a) people can change whether low rated posts are hidden or not in the settings page b) if a post gets downvoted by different members, there must have been a reason

These constant complaints are fueled by people who feel that their opinions and posts must be seen by everyone. But if they say something other posters don't feel adds value to the discussion, it might be downvoted. That is how the system is intended to function.

No, I have not "failed to realize" about the settings at all. I have had the settings set so that low rated posts are visible for a long time now..Also, let me just say I can't take you seriously when you have been here less than 2 months and you think you know the board very well